Science and technology is mandatory for all students from Kindergarten to Year 6.
In science and technology, students explore the natural and made worlds. They learn how to apply scientific and technological skills, knowledge and understanding across a broad range of contexts.
Science provides a way of inquiring about the world around us. It explores evidence and investigates ways to discover, develop and produce solutions to real world problems. The inquiry and skill-based nature of science opens doors to ideas and discoveries.
Science and Technology fosters in students a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them. Students are encouraged to embrace new concepts and to learn through trialling, testing and refining ideas. They are supported to participate responsibly in developing innovative ideas and solutions in response to questions and opportunities relevant to them and the world around them.
Some examples:
Kindergarten
- Record observations using drawings, simple digital recording methods, oral descriptions and/or simple visual representations
- Recognise that plants and animals can be used for food, or materials (fibres) for clothing and shelter
- Identify and describe how the properties of different materials suit their design purpose
- Observe the effects of push and pull forces on familiar objects, for example changes in motion and changes in shape
- Identify daily and seasonal changes that occur in our environment, such as day and night, and changes in the weather
- Explore familiar digital devices, for example a computer, a device to take a digital image
- Follow and design a sequence of steps (algorithms), for example following a procedure.
Year 1 and 2
- Explore how different environments cater for the needs of a living thing
- Explore the plants and animals used in customary practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
- Design and evaluate a product, demonstrating understanding of the suitability of materials or a purpose
- Identify sound, light, heat, electricity and movement as forms of energy
- Record the observable changes that occur in the sky and on the land, for example patterns in the position of the Sun across a day
- Communicate, collaborate and share information safely using digital systems.
Year 3 and 4
- Identify that science involves making predictions and describing patterns and relationships
- Design, plan and produce a product, system or environment to support the growth of a plant and/or animal
- Recognise that a change of state of matter can be caused by adding or removing heat
- Explore some common sources and uses of electrical energy and describe different ways electrical energy can be generated sustainably
- Investigate why the Earth’s surface changes over time as a result of natural processes and human activity
- Collect, access and present different types of data using simple software to create information and solve problems
- Investigate how the same data can be represented in different ways, for example codes and symbols.
Year 5 and 6
- Explain a sustainable practice used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to manage food and fibre resources
- Describe how changing physical conditions in the environment affect the growth and survival of living things
- Explore that when materials are combined the result is either a mixture or a new substance
- Identify and evaluate the functional and structural properties of materials, for example shade cloth for shelter
- Perform a scientific investigation to explore the strength of a single contact or non-contact force
- Identify that Earth is part of a system of planets orbiting around a star (the Sun)
- Design a user interface for a digital system, for example developing a storyboard for a game.